-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- South Korea launched an investigation Tuesday into reports of toxic chemicals being dumped at a former U.S. military base , the Defense Ministry said .

The tests follow allegations of American soldiers burying chemicals on Korean soil .

The first tests are being carried out by a joint military , government and civilian task force at the site of what was Camp Mercer , west of Seoul .

`` Soil and underground water will be taken in the areas where toxic chemicals were allegedly buried , '' said the statement from the South Korean Defense Ministry . Once testing is finished , the government will decide on how to test more than 80 other sites -- all former bases .

The alarm was raised this month when a U.S. veteran alleged barrels of the toxic herbicide Agent Orange were buried at an American base in South Korea in the late 1970s . Two of his fellow soldiers corroborated his story about Camp Carroll , about 185 miles -LRB- 300 kilometers -RRB- southeast of the capital , Seoul .

`` We 've been working very closely with the Korean government since we had the initial claims , '' said Lt. Gen. John Johnson , who is heading the Camp Carroll Task Force . `` If we get evidence that there is a risk to health , we are going to fix it . ''

A joint U.S. - South Korean investigation is being conducted at Camp Carroll to test the validity of allegations .

The U.S. military sprayed Agent Orange from planes onto jungles in Vietnam to kill vegetation in an effort to expose guerrilla fighters . Exposure to the chemical has been blamed for a wide variety of ailments , including certain forms of cancer and nerve disorders . It has also been linked to birth defects , according to the Department of Veterans Affairs .

Journalist Yoonjung Seo contributed to this report .

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U.S. and South Korea teams are searching for chemicals at former military bases

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Toxic chemicals were buried at a U.S. in the 1970s , a American veteran alleges

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Agent Orange has been linked to some cancers